WEEKLY E-NEWS FROM THE NORTH CAROLINA BIOTECHNOLOGY CENTER

IN FOCUS FEATURE

Consortium Delivers Information to Small Companies for Less

From Our Web Site

Norris Tolson Chats with Bill Friday Nov. 16
William Friday interviews Norris Tolson, president and CEO of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, about biotechnology on UNC-TV's "North Carolina People" program.

Phase Bioscience Finds $5.4M More Venture Funding
Durham biotechnology company Phase Bioscience, aided in its early development by $165,000 in three loans from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, has received $5.4 million in a new round of venture capital investment.

Targacept to Test Alternate Depression Drug
The Winston-Salem company will begin clinical trials to test a drug aimed at patients who don't respond to current treatment options for depression.

Arysta LifeScience Sells for $2.2 Billion to Europe's Biggest Buyout Firm
Arysta LifeScience, a Tokyo-based manufacturer of insecticides and other crop protection products with North American headquarters in Cary, has been purchased by Europe's largest private equity firm for $2.2 billion.

LabCorp, Medco Sign Personalized Medicine Research Pact
The research effort, which will be centered on the breast cancer drug tamoxifen, is the latest in a rapidly growing field of studies linking individual genetics to the safety and efficacy of specific prescription drugs.

Syngenta Licenses Chromatin Gene Stacking Technology
Syngenta Biotechnology (Research Triangle Park) has entered into a research and commercial license agreement with Chromatin for the Chicago-based company's coma proprietary gene-stacking technology.

Hamner Institutes Researcher Wins $1.6M NIH Grant
Dr. Wenhong Cao, assistant investigator in the Division of Translational Biology at The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences, has been awarded $1.6 million from the National Institutes of Health to perform diabetes research over five years.

In Focus

Consortium Delivers Information to Small Companies for Less

Scientific research is often a race for information, but that research effort is also driven by information.

For small companies trying to cover overhead, keep the lab stocked, and pay their researchers, the expense and time of maintaining a publications library can be daunting. Services such as Elsevier's ScienceDirect can streamline that effort, but the minimum cost for the service is steep for a company just getting started.

Two years ago, the North Carolina Biotechnology Center created a consortium of small biotech companies and leveraged those numbers to negotiate a package with Elsevier. Now 82 companies throughout the state are taking advantage of this opportunity. The Consortium is accepting new members through Nov. 2.

Read the complete article.

News from Other Sites

Healing with Herbs
"As an herbal medicine practitioner, Accem Scott knew the healing powers of ginseng, black cohosh, bloodroot and other native herbs long before moving to the mountains, where they grow in the wild. Now Scott thinks the herbs that are good for patients could be just as good for the economy of Western North Carolina."
From the Asheville Citizen-Times

Stopping Inflammation Opens Many Avenues for Cognosci
"Cognosci, which 'just got a slew of grants,' says founder, president and chair of the company, Michael Vitek, hopes to close on a $10 million to $12 million Series A venture round by the end of the year…"
From TechJournalSouth

Researchers to Create 2,500 Jobs
"Drug researchers that contract with pharmaceutical companies to test new medicines plan to create 2,500 jobs in the Triangle over the next three to four years."
From the (Raleigh) News and Observer

Pharma Leaders Helping Revolutionize Drug Submission Process
"An unprecedented summit meeting of four pharmaceutical giants, Abbott, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, and GlaxoSmithKline spent three days in Durham last week coming up with a teaching tool to help design industry best practices in meeting new Federal Food and Drug Administration regulations."
From TechJournalSouth

Medical Testing Recruiter (eCast ) Grows Fast
"In the past 18 months, eCast has raised about $12 million from private investors, hired dozens of employees and moved to larger headquarters, said Peter Bechtel, eCast's chief executive."
From the (Raleigh) News and Observer

Reborn Pilot Therapeutics Names Top Executive Team
"Pilot Therapeutics, a once-bright star in the Triad's biotech industry that went out of business after moving to South Carolina in 2002, has named a new executive team."
From the Triad Business Journal

NC State University Making a Move in Funding
"While Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are mourning stingy budget growth at the National Institutes of Health, North Carolina State University is licking its chops at proposals to boost funding for the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy."
From the Triangle Business Journal

Trees: A "Poplar" Source for Biofuels
"There is no simple solution to the energy problem. Crops, such as corn, compete with the food supply. Poplars and other trees could provide a sustainable alternative for ethanol production; however, they require costly pretreatment before processing into ethanol. Researchers at North Carolina State University have identified a potential solution to the problem."
From the AgProfessional

Textile Firms use Expertise to Create Bio Breakthrough
"National Spinning Co. of Glen Raven and Carolina Narrow Fabric of Winston-Salem are working with Entegrion, a Research Triangle Park-based firm, on a new kind of bandage that can significantly reduce the amount of time it takes for even major wounds to clot, lessening the chances of death due to blood loss."
From the Triad Business Journal

Is 'Gene Stacking' the Next Big Thing?
"The technology could fundamentally change the way plants are bred while saving seed companies millions of dollars."
From the (Raleigh) News and Observer

Community Watch

• PPD, a Wilmington-based global contract research organization, has opened offices in Sydney, Australia; Copenhagen, Denmark; Lisbon, Portugal; and Lima, Peru.
• Valeria Lee, the first president of The Golden LEAF Foundation, announced she will leave the position in March 2008.
• Michael Fleming, M.D., F.A.A.F.P, has been named medical director for primary care at Digital Healthcare, a Wake Forest company specializing in retinal risk assessment for diabetics.
• Ross Consaul has been named CEO, and Keith Wakeman president, of Winston-Salem-based Pilot Therapeutics, a nutritional therapeutics company dedicated to the prevention and treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases.
• David Provost has been named vice president of late phase services at INC Research of Raleigh.
• Richard A. Franco Sr., current director, president and CEO of DARA BioSciences of Raleigh, has been appointed chairman of the board of directors. Steve Gorlin and Thomas W. D'Alonzo previously served as co-chairmen, and will remain as directors of the company.

Please send Community Watch items to Jim Shamp.

This newsletter was sent on Thursday, Oct. 25, 2007. For the latest North Carolina biotechnology industry headlines, please visit the news section of our Web site.

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